It took Tenard quite a while to calm down the frozen girl by the door. After a bit of whispered persuasion, she sauntered over meekly and sat beside him and across from me, keeping her head low.

Now that I had a better look on her face, though I could see it clearly even when she was at the door, I realized she looked familiar. 

If I’m not wrong, she is my…

With a quick adjustment to his glasses, Tenard cleared his throat. “Allow me to introduce you to my daughter, Ranette.”

Tenard confirmed my suspicion. This girl was my “cousin”. As for her looks, she looked pretty much the same as her father with her messy green hair and dark red eyes behind round glasses. Her outfit, tailored and regal, clashed with the awkward way she hunched beside her father.

As similar as she was to her father, At least she didn’t adjust her glasses every two seconds.

“Oh, so you’re Rannete?” Mother said, flashing a rare gentle smile. “You have grown so much I barely recognized you. It’s nice to see you again, dear.” 

“I-I-It’s nice to see you again… Your G-Grace…” Ranette said through stutters.

“Long time no see, Ranette! Come on, let your uncle give you a hug!” Father spread his arms wide.

“N-No thanks. Y-Your Grace…” she shot him down.

Like father, like daughter.

I guess I should give her a proper greeting too.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ranette. I’m Carin—”

“I-I know that…” she cut me off, her gaze locked to the floor.

“I-I see…”

I… didn’t know how to react. Why didn’t she return my greeting? Was she afraid of me? Or bitter because I was the heir and she wasn’t?

Seeing as I’m in the political world in this life, that has to be it, no?

Ranette lifted her head slightly and glanced into my eyes for a moment. But she immediately tensed up and hid her face in a scramble, her ears red.

Now I was even more confused. I wasn’t so dense as to believe her blush came from a fever or such like, but why was she so embarrassed if she was scared to death by me moments ago? Make up your mind!

“Ah, this is a good chance, Carine!” Father turned to me. 

“What is it, Father?” Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this.

…

I was standing at the main estate’s library. Believe it or not, it was larger than the estate at the capital… Agh, who am I kidding, of course, you would believe it! This house was so over the top I could sell it and have enough money to stave off world hunger for a few years.

I should be thrilled to be given access to this treasure trove of information for me to learn. But there was just one small hiccup.

A jittery girl was vibrating in place right beside me. 

It was Ranette.

Father told me to visit the library with her, and Tenard agreed wholeheartedly. He believed it was a good way for us “cousins” to bond together after a long time no see. 

The problem was, I didn’t know if Ranette would even want to be with me. She kept turning her head around frantically, looking around as if she was unsure whether to fight or fly.

However, the longer I left her alone, the later I got to read the books. If anyone was going to start the flow of conversation, it had to be me.

“It has been quite a while since we’ve last seen each other, hasn’t it, Ranette?”

“Ack—!” Ranette jumped back and grabbed a nearby book to hide her face from me.

I was starting to believe she really saw me as a Medusa.

It would be better for me if I could solve whatever caused her anxiousness as soon as possible.

“Forgive me, is there anything wrong?” I gave a direct question. “Was it something I did?”

Ranette tensed even more, if you can believe it. She slowly peeked over the book and said in a meek voice, “N-No, you didn’t do anything wrong, Lady Carine…”

Then why are you taking further steps back?

She was willing to talk to me at least. But now I didn’t know what to do. Ranette was still obscuring half of her face and these books were just begging for me to read them.

Oh right, books!

I faced Ranette with the best smile I could muster. “Tell me, Ranette. Do you like books?”

Ranette stiffened up… again. I was starting to see a trend here.

“I often spend the free time from my training to read books in my library. It’s the only thing that keeps my mind calm nowadays.” I approached one of the shelves and scanned through the spines of each book on display, my fingers gliding through them.

“This library has quite a handful of books, though. Many of them I haven’t even heard of. It’s to the point I don’t even know where to start.” I turned to her. “Do you have any recommendations, Ranette?”

Ranette lowered her book even more. “Y-You’re asking me??” Her voice was higher than before and I could hear her properly this time.

“Well, I did call you by name.”

“A-Ahaha… haha…” she gave an exasperated chuckle, raising her book with every ‘ha’.

It was less of a “Haha, that’s funny…” and more like a “Haha, I’m in danger.” 

It wasn’t like I forced you to be here, y’know? I wanted to tell her that but I realized that would only make things worse between us. Besides, I wanted to get close to her. As I said before, she was the closest thing I had to a sibling in this side of my life.

Well, if she was that afraid of me. I shouldn’t force her to speak, I guess. I tried to focus on the books again, looking for any titles that interested me. 

But then, a sudden voice caught me off guard. “B-Blue cape…”

I stopped in my tracks and turned around. “Forgive me, did you say something?”

“‘T-The One With The Blue Cape’… It-It’s my r-re-recommendation.”

Oh lords above, she was actually talking to me! If my face hadn’t been so dead, my jaw would’ve been on the floor. 

Is this what parents feel when their babies talk for the first time?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep